Weekly digest: Nov 23

Hello everyone,

Our focus this week, as you might guess, is the HS2 event taking place tomorrow at the Greenwood Centre. With this edition being published (unusually) on Friday, I’m not able to provide feedback on how it went. So, I’m afraid you’ll need to bate your breath until next week to find out how it went.  In the meantime, some snippets for you.

1. Lotto bonanza – the £1,000 pa barrier smashed!
   • The Broxtowe Lotto scheme was only launched in mid-September and I last reported on this 6 weeks ago. At that time, I wrote (somewhat optimistically I thought) about our hopes to attract enough supporters to raise £1,000 towards our activities.
   • And guess what! The latest report tells us that we are on track to raise almost £1,100 a year!
   • Members and friends now buy over 40 tickets on our behalf each week and we thank each and every one of you for supporting the Forum. It is a huge boost to the Steering Group to know that you believe in our work to the extent of digging in your pockets to help us.
   • We only hope some of you have won prizes along the way. If you have, please let us know; it will be good to know we have actual winners as well as being a ‘winner’ of the scheme ourselves.
   • I’ll keep the link to our page below in case other supporters would like to step forward. But, as promised, I won’t be badgering you so much now!
2. Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) meeting
   • As notified last time, we had a meeting with the DIO earlier this week to discuss our approach to the Local Plan examination process.
   • It’s fair to say (and unsurprising, really) we have different views on how the Barracks should be developed in the long term. So, the meeting became a little heated at times as we discussed our different thoughts concerning the site.
   • However, it is important to report that the Forum is completely aligned with the DIO’s key requirement – the site is capable of delivering a total of 1,500 homes. The DIO want this figure to be formally allocated before they move to the next stage of their overall plan – to develop a masterplan – before then considering how best to dispose of the site.
   • We believe the site is capable of accommodating 1,500 homes: our caveat is the deadline of delivering the first 500 dwellings by 2028, the end date of the Council’s Local Plan. Given historical precedent in the Borough, we don’t believe homes can be built at a rate of 100 per annum, starting in 2023, as predicated in the Plan’s housing trajectory.
   • But this is a relatively minor niggle compared to the ‘big picture’ perspective of the overall allocated figure. So, I’m confident the outcome of this particular hearing will be a win-win for all parties.
3. Commissioned reports update
   • We have three reports being undertaken on our behalf by AECOM consultants – which are being funded separately by the government. A quick update on each of them:
     1. Heritage and Landscape report. We are eager to publish this report. We have seen the draft and made our suggested amendments. AECOM have accepted all our comments and the report is now with Locality (the agency handling these technical packages) to review and sign-off on behalf of the government.
        Fingers crossed we can finally release it in the next week or so.
     2. Policy Definition and Evidence Gathering report. We have held a series of teleconferences and AECOM have already provided us with useful advice on providing evidence to justify our draft policies. This report – when produced in the spring – will undoubtedly strengthen our Plan and help make it watertight when presented for examination.
     3. Design Codes report. This piece of work will help shape our housing policies. We are keen to reflect comments arising from our consultation sessions last spring to: i) move away from standard ‘red-brick’ estates, and ii) to build energy efficient and environmentally friendly dwellings.
        Again, we expect to get the report sometime late next March, so it will be a welcome late addition to our Plan policies.

4. And finally…..
   • Toton and Chilwell Meadows CAT (Community Action Team) meeting is being held next Thurs 29^th Nov at 7.15pm at Toton Methodist Church, Stapleford Lane.
   • Clean and Green on Toton Fields. I mentioned this event a couple of weeks ago and it was held last Sunday 18^th. It was very successful, and I’d like to thank all who took part – it was a lovely morning to be out and about on the reserve. The council have produced a press release about the event and you can read all about it here

 More next time, he said, finishing succinctly (still my favourite ‘word of the moment’) ….

Kind regards
Graham

Broxtowe Lotto: tickets available from our CTTC Forum page where you’ll also find details of the scheme.